Comfort
by LissaMarie
Summary: A follow-up to my one-shot "Back-Up Plan". Eliot had a rough day. Enter Parker.


Ship: pre-Eliot/Parker? (maybe, we shall see)

Spoilers: Nothing specific, you should probably read my other Leverage fic "Back-Up Plan" first though or some things won't make sense

Summary: A follow-up to my one-shot "Back-Up Plan". Eliot had a rough day. Enter Parker.

Disclaimer: Yeah, still not mine.

Author's Note: The reviews for my first foray into the fandom were so nice. Thank you all, especially those who have not received a PM thank you from me. I've also realized that I seem to be a fan of adjectives that end in –ly and it kind of annoys me. If you have any suggestions on how to make this better or where to go from here, I'd be glad to hear them.

Comfort

_A Sequel to Back-Up Plan_

By LissaMarie

The hitter slowly lowered himself to his very welcoming bed suppressing the groan of discomfort that threatened to escape his lips. Eliot Spencer was many things, but a whiner was not one of them. As far as he was concerned, a couple of cracked ribs and what he was sure was a bruised kidney was children's play in comparison to some of the injuries he had suffered.

Not to mention inflicted.

After expertly situated icepacks on his injuries, Eliot closed his eyes waiting for the codeine and muscle relaxants to take effect, secure in the knowledge that his team was aware of his need for a night off to recover and would act accordingly…In other words, not throw themselves into dangerous situations that required the muscle to give (and take) a beating to get them out. He very nearly drifted off into a drug-induced slumber when he felt a slight shift in his mattress. Without regard for his injuries, he threw himself out of the bed ready to throw down with whatever enemy from his past had managed to track him down.

Through the bright stars that flooded his vision when he strained his beaten torso, he saw not an enemy, but Parker with a blank, clearly unimpressed expression on her face.

"If you married me, you wouldn't be surprised by my being here, and you wouldn't have hurt yourself jumping up like a crazy person." Parker apparently didn't see the irony of _her _comparing _him_ to a crazy person.

The relief at not having to fight in his sore, drugged-up condition almost overwhelmed the annoyance and confusion that came from having the petite thief in his bedroom in his house that she shouldn't even know the location of. He doesn't really understand how she continues to surprise him…There should be a point when the unexpected becomes the expected, shouldn't there?

"I know I will regret asking, but what are you doing here?" He expected there to be some kind of exasperation in his tone, but even to himself, he sounded almost amused.

Parker just tilted her head, her blank expression turning more pensive. "You were moving weird, so I decided to follow you. It was surprisingly easy." The scolding was a bit surprising, but the stern set to her face was replaced with childish curiosity. "I like your house."

Eliot thanked her out of lack of any other response. He couldn't help tensing as she climbed off his bed and stepped closer to him. His every instinct was telling him to get away…To hole himself up to heal and then face the world, 10 foot tall and bulletproof, like he usually did.

Of course, Eliot Spencer was not the fleeing kind, and he forced himself to stay still as Parker inched even closer. Her close inspection of the bruises marring his upper body made him almost as uncomfortable as the light touch of her fingertips across an especially tender area of his lower back. While he was used to women appreciating his physique, he was always careful to not reveal too many fresh injuries, not wanting to expose the sensual part of his life to the violence that seemed to permeate his being to the core.

But there was no reason to hide that part of himself from Parker. She'd seen it in action…Depended on it to save her own skin more than once. He made himself relax and let her take her time find whatever it was that she was looking for in his garishly discolored skin. She seemed to find it after several minutes of inspection, and she gently placed one of the carelessly discarded icepacks back on his sore ribs.

Eliot allowed himself to be guided back into bed. As anxious as it made him to be showing such weakness in front of another person, he couldn't deny that it felt nice to have someone look out for him for a change. He settled in as Parker situated his icepacks with almost the same level of expertise as he himself had earlier which he chose not to look too far into out of fear of what he would find…The idea of the blonde thief in pain made his chest hurt more than the cracked ribs ever could.

Parker sat lightly on the edge of the bed after drawing the covers up to Eliot's neck ignoring the eye-roll he couldn't resist giving her. Their eye contact was only broken when the hitter finally allowed himself to edge closer to the slumber that was beaconing him. The last thing he heard before sleep took him aware was Parker's soft whisper in his ear.

"I think I would make a good wife with a bit of practice."

Eliot woke to the midmorning sun dancing across his bed. The first thing he noticed was that icepacks on his injuries were once again quite cold indicating that they had been switched out some time recently without him noticing. The next thing was the alluring smell of freshly brewed coffee. And when he turned to check his alarm clock for the time, he noticed a bottle of ibuprofen, a glass of water, and a mug of the alluring coffee already seemingly prepared to his taste.

The sound of breaking glass and Parker's small "Ooops" broke through his contemplation of those things, but he really couldn't bring himself to care that there were many priceless things that might have just lost their battle with the thief's ADD. He fought down the urge to make sure she didn't hurt herself on the broken glass because, after all, she was a grown woman that could be trusted to get it cleaned up without cutting herself and bleeding to death in his kitchen…She had taken care of herself most of her life and took care of him pretty well just hours earlier (and no longer than 30 minutes earlier if the icepacks and coffee were anything to go by). He let her have her space as he waited for the pills to take the edge off the ache in his muscles and sipped at his coffee, instinctively knowing that Parker would be checking in on him when she was done with whatever small disaster had occurred in his kitchen.

One thing was for certain: If Eliot did agree to Parker's insane proposal, he could definitely look forward to an interesting future.


End file.
